Local News

5:37 pm

Fri March 15, 2013

Martinez Vetoes "Breaking Bad" Bill

After passing the House, Senate and various committees, the Film Production Tax Credit Increase - otherwise known as the Breaking Bad Bill - has been vetoed by Governor Susana Martinez. Governor Martinez cited the legislatures inability to pass a tax reform package as her primary reason to halting the expansion of New Mexico's film subsidies.

According to Susana Martinez's office, the governor called the film industry "an important contributor to New Mexico's economy" and expressed a "willingness to compromise and consider a measure that expanded the reimbursement rate for television productions."

However Martinez went on to say that the measure would would have to be part of a "comprehensive tax reform package that helps create more jobs in New Mexico." In her letter, the governor writes that the legislature failed to meet her halfway by passing tax reform packages, and as such vetoed the bill.Jo Edna Boldin with 505 Studio Works has been a casting director in New Mexico for a decade. She says Martinez's move would have major impacts to the states economy.

"It hurts the state in all kinds of ways just beyond the film workers and the money that they spend in the state and whether they stay in the state or not because we are so specialized in what we do we have to go where the work is," says Boldin.

According to Boldin, money from the states film industry makes its way into the economy through paychecks, as well as rentals and purchases made for production. She also says that movies and series shot in the state have contributed to tourism, increased education opportunities for students seeking careers, and hundreds of jobs that could now hop state lines.